6 days to split between Surfer's Paradise and Brisbane

We're planning on an April holiday to Surfer's Paradise and Brisbane, for about 6 days. Likely to fly into one city and out of the other.

Would 3 days in each be a good split?

We're a family of 2 adults and 2 kids - 1 school-aged and 1 in kindy. My children are fairly timid, so I think we would only go to SeaWorld (perhaps) of the theme parks, maybe also Currumbin wildlife sanctuary. We'll probably hire a car. Neither child copes well with long walks in the heat.

Any other tips or recommendations would be much appreciated!

We all love the beach and a good swimming pool. My DH and I love food and galleries. Planning on a river cruise and GoMA in Brisbane

Firstly I wouldn't stay at Surfers Paradise, I would stay at Broadbeach.
Surfers is for the young party crowd. It's not so nice.

Broadbeach is good for young families. There is a great beach, a big parkland along the beach front with playgrounds, shopping centre across the road, heaps of restaurants. Way nicer and just down the road from Surfers. Can catch the light rail there.

Do Seaworld, a day at the beach, putt putt, park etc.

When in Brisbane, if have a car, do a drive up to Australia zoo. It is worth it. Maybe a day going on the city cat river ferry ride and a visit to Southbank parklands - great pool etc. Can also visit the museum next to Southbank.

Thanks for your replies, my kids would love glow worms and I'll definitely look into Broadbeach. A nice playground is always a bonus and we certainly won't be there for the nightlife.

Interesting about just doing a day-trip to Brisbane and staying on the Gold Coast. Logistically that would make things easier and we might then only need a car for part of our stay. However I haven't been to Brisbane since I was a child so I was keen to explore the city a bit.

We've been to Australia zoo on a previous trip to Noosa so while the kids loved it, we'll skip it this time

Agree with Bazaar restaurant. Haven't been for a while but it was amazing.

Definitely are nightclubs in Broadbeach, but way more family stuff and parklands than Surfers.

Maybe do most of the time at GC and one or two nights at the end in Brisbane.
I think Southbank is worth a day's visit: beach, parklands, playground, GoMA, Museum, city cat ride.

At Broadbeach, I would recommend: The Wave Resort, Peppers. Much cheaper is the Bel Air, which has an indoor and outdoor pool, big units available and significantly cheaper than the other places. Always found it pleasant to stay there.

If you decide to stay at coast and drive to Bris, parking at cultural centre (underneath art gallery) is $17 per day. Pretty good for city parking! From there you can do art gallery, GOMA, state library (don't miss this, they have some great holiday programs), museum and science centre. Finish with late afternoon dip and dinner at Southbank.

The parks at Broadbeach are amazing. We tend to holiday there and do the same thing, every day - kids love it and never tire of it! Early to the beach, pool swim, rest, lunch and movie at home, hit the park in the afternoon, play on the beach. The park is one of the best planned, well thought out parks, I've come across.

We recently took out 8yo and 4yo to wet n wild and they loved it. I was so happily surprised. Mine are a bit timid too but the fun outweighed the nervousness factor.

There was a whole mini theme park just for them. They do cap the rides in that area by height - too high and you can’t ride. Makes it so safe and friendly for the littlies. I would check your eldest is under the height limited only having one child in there would be hard work.

But do consider it if they love the water. It really was an awesome day.

Broadbeach is wonderful, that park on the beach next to the surf club was wonderful! We stayed at Ultiqua air apartments and they were above a mall with supermarket so we bought our own breakfast and ate out most nights..

We caught the bus 20 mins up to the theme parks and walked everywhere.. wonderful place for the kids.

I do think that if you stay in Broadbeach you can do without a car. Save the $$$.
You can use the light rail to get up to Surfer's Paradise.
The beach, shops, Pacific Fair Mall, Restaurants, parks, putt putt, are all in easy walking distance.

You can take buses to the theme parks.

You could even catch the train all the way up to Brisbane for a day trip or two to GoMa, Southbank, museum etc.

Would be way cheaper than hire car and much less stress.

When we go to Gold Coast we just park the car and leave it, using public transport rest of the time.

There's 2 restaurants in the main drag of Broadbeach called Yellowfin and Sage - they usually have 40% off food prices for early diners (around 5pm), my kids have been going there since they were in highchairs. One child is an adventurous eater, the other is more your nuggets and pizza variety.

I'd look into an annual pass if you were planning on both Sea World and Wet n Wild, it typically works out cheaper, even if you only visit once, and it'd get you to Movie World as well (prob only half a day necessary with younger kids).

For all of that I think you should get a car, even if you don't use it all the time. You could also rent it for part of the trip. I've also done pick up at Brisbane, drop off at gold coast. There's lots of cheap car rental options. I usually book through a site called airportrentals.com.au and I've never had my problems booking or getting my car insurance.

I also realised really enjoy going to the dfo like place at harbour town